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Heterogeneous Reactions

The "Heterogeneous Reactions" group is investigating the chemical formation of oxidized organic precursors, relevant for the formation of atmospheric aerosols and the coupling of those to atmospheric radical chemistry (Ehn et al., Nature, 2014, Mentel et al., ACP, 2015). The central analytical method is negative ion chemical ionization mass spectrometry. These studies are mainly performed in the atmospheric simulation chamber SAPHIR and in the new continuously stirred flow reactor SAPHIR* (SAPHIR-STAR, Stirred Atmospheric flow Reactor).

Because of their importance for the climate we also are also investigating the effects of aerosol chemistry on cloud droplet activation (Zhao et al., GRL, 2015, Zhao et al., Nature Comm., 2017). For the latter we installed the aerosol sampling in three heights (120m, 50m, 10m) at the Meteorological Tower at FZJ.